Prehistoric Park Back From The Ashes Reboot Chapter 1:The Ghosts of Ghost Ranch
Warm tropical rain pounded down on Prehistoric Park as the small group that consisted of Nigel Marven, Chiyo Ishado, Henry Wu, Owen Grady, Simon Masrani and John Arnold all walked towards John Hammond's old bungalow, where his grandchildren were currently spending the summer. Three months had gone by since the great park breakout and Indy had escaped from her enclosure. Indy had caused the most deaths of all of the animals and many families and big corporations had tried to get the park to euthanize her but the staff of the park couldn't bear to put her down. John Hammond wouldn't have wanted that. Several minutes of walking allowed the group of eight enough time to wonder why they had been requested by Tim and Lex to meet them at John's old home. They would get their answer soon enough. When the group finally did arrive at the bungalow of the now deceased owner of the park, they were greeted by Tim and Lex standing on the porch. It was hard to tell if they had been crying at the sudden reminder of their grandfather's tragic demise or if it was just the rain on their faces, but, whatever the case, streams of liquid slid down their faces. The staff tried to ignore the long and still visible scar from when Lex had wrestled a Velociraptor to protect a group of toddlers hiding in the visitor center when the mass breakout occurred. "Thanks for coming" said Tim, opening the sliding glass door into the bungalow. "We found an old note from grandpa while we were in his office. It was written for you." This intrigued the eight Prehistoric Park staff members greatly. They quickly entered the house and seated themselves on chairs around the living room coffee table before Chiyo brought Tim and Lex in and got them towels to avoid them getting a cold. As the group waited for the two siblings to dry off and finish thanking Chiyo, rain continued to bombard the world outside. Several minutes went by as the shivering children wrapped themselves before Lex told Nigel that the letter for them was in the kitchen. Henry Wu sat up to get it, but he was beaten to it by Tim, who promptly ran off deeper into the bungalow, still wrapped in his towel. Henry sat back down and everyone stayed seated where they were, waiting for Tim to get back with the letter. After a few moments, Tim came running back with a brown envelope, now slightly damp, with the words To My Dearest Friends and Associates written on it in cursive with black ink. Tim handed the envelope to Nigel, who, without wasting anytime whatsoever, ripped it open. Reaching inside, Nigel grabbed a folded piece of paper with fancy cursive writing on it. Slowly, as to avoid damaging it, he pulled it out. Unfolding it just as slowly to avoid accidentally ripping it, Nigel started to read the letter aloud for everyone to hear. Tim and Lex had already left the group, to parts unknown. It was quite possible that they had gone to get hot chocolate. Nigel cleared his throat out quickly before talking aloud to allow everyone in the room to hear him clearly. Taking a deep breath, Nigel started. "To my dearest friends, colleagues, and allies, If you are reading this letter, than I am sad to tell you that I met my untimely demise at the hands of (presumably), the cancer that I have been battling for many years now. I am writing this letter as of the day that Nigel and Chiyo caught the Dilophosaurus. I know I have said this already in life, but well done you two! They really are beautiful animals. But the point of this letter isn't to congratulate you two, even after death. It is to reveal what I had planned for the future of Prehistoric Park after my death and what I wanted each of you to do. Henry, my boy. You have exceeded mine and everyone else's expectations in the past, present and, almost certainly, the future. You have done what was thought to be impossible by the scientific world and cloned species preserved in amber for millions of years. Now, I want you to take on a new frontier, one not even related to genetics. In the very back of storage shed A-001 on Dock A, there is an unfinished project that Green Stripe, Einstein and I never quite got to finishing. My wish is that you finish it. What it is, I will not reveal on this letter, for fear that this letter may somehow fall into the wrong kind of hands. And if you happen to be a BioSyn or other rival company staff member who stole this letter: the electronic lock only responds to Wu's fingerprint. Don't bother trying to even blow the doors open or I will see to it that I somehow rise from the dead and get InGen to sue you into the next time epoch." This little bit of humor in the letter of the deceased Prehistoric Park founder brought a chuckle out of everyone, including Wu. Nigel cleared his voice before continuing on. "Nigel and Chiyo. You two are the reason Prehistoric Park is even what it is. You two are the reason why dinosaurs once more walk the earth, pterosaurs one again rule the skies and why marine reptiles once again swim the waters. You two are the ones that have defied all odds against you, be it natural disasters, harsh environments or the very creatures contained inside our park enclosures. You made my dream a reality during my life by giving extinct species a second chance and I don't wish for my dream to die with me. Continue to delve into the past and rescue those who don't survive today. Keep my dream alive. Suzanne and Bob. My head vet and head keeper. You two are the ones who have kept for our animals after they have been rescued from the clutches of extinction by Nigel and Chiyo. You two play an equally important part in the preservation of previously extinct species as Nigel and Chiyo. While I was alive, I was firmly against the idea of even having lethal ammo inside of the park walls. However, certain animals (namely Cronus, Lamia, Tantor, the Utahraptors and several others) have made me realize that, even if I don't like the idea, it may, one day, be necessary to retire one of our residents. Inside of the storage shed A-013 on Dock B, there is are crates of weapons and lethal ammo. I ask that, before you try using them, try every other possible option and if, for whatever reason, you run out of the lethal ammo, don't get anymore. Prehistoric Park is supposed to be a haven for the long gone, not a military base. To my dearest friend, John Arnold. The reason I want you to read this is not for any reason important to the future of Prehistoric Park, but because you were my closest friend in life. You stood with me through fire and flood, through the early days of the park's creation to the controversy of bringing back prehistoric animals that is circling Prehistoric Park to this day. So, instead of telling you what I want you to do, I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Simon Masrani. You were another close friend and one of the few people outside of the island chain I trusted with the knowledge of the park. There is nobody else alive other than you that I would trust with the wellbeing of the park. While Tim would inherit the park normally, through being my grandson, I don't think he would ever truly realize what it means to run the park without it going through many major changes, either good or bad. Consider this my final will. I want the park to belong to you. Please take care of it as if it were your own child. Finally, there is Owen Grady. Our now world famous "raptor trainer". When I first hired you, it was because of your ability to train top-tier military dogs in large groups. One of the reasons that I hired you was because the dogs you trained had the same temperament as many smaller dromaeosaurids, and, thus, I wanted to see if dromaeosaurids could be tamed or, at the very least, trained to have more tolerant temperaments. However, there was another reason that greatly contributed to why I hired you. I know that you have experience in training animals other than dogs (and, by this point, dromaeosaurids). On your resume, you said that you also had experience training dolphins and raptors (as in the birds of prey). Now, after having gained a significantly larger amount of animals, both in terms of species and number, since we first hired you, I fear that even a highly loyal pack of trained Utahraptors isn't enough to stop a pack of rampaging super predators, something that I hope is never made apparent within the boundaries of Prehistoric Park. Therefore, I wish for you to start training the Argentavis as well as the dromaeosaurids to help with park security. It most certainly wouldn't be the first time you've trained large carnivores by today's standards. I have faith in your ability to do this. I want to apologize to everyone that I can't tell you this in life, but my old age has made me rather forgetful and I thought that having you find this after ….a certain event would have made this more meaningful. Before I end this letter, don't think of my death as goodbye. Think of it as simply an "until next time". Farewell everyone. Sincerely your friend, for now and forever, John Hammond For a moment, nobody spoke. Nigel because he needed to rest his threat and everyone else because they were trying to process everything that had just happened: Wu had been asked to finish an old project of Mr Hammond, Nigel and Chiyo had been asked to keep rescuing prehistoric creatures, the existence of lethal ammo within the park boundaries had just been revealed, Simon had just been given ownership of the park and Owen had just been asked to train the park's Argentavis. It was a lot to take in. After a minute or two, they heard the tapping of high heels on hardwood and turned around to see Claire Dearing walking towards them. Why she was here, nobody knew, but nobody bothered asking her at the moment. If they had to guess, it was probably just making her morning rounds to see the kids. Claire had grown fond of Lex and Tim, as she didn't have her own kids and she rarely ever got to see her nephews. Without a word, Claire looked at the odd group of staff members before glancing at the letter. As she scanned over it and read everything, her eyes widened several times at what was on it. While she was reading it, she didn't seem to notice Nigel pluck her IPad out of her hands. Only once she had finished reading and Nigel had finished looking something up did she notice the absence of her device in her hands. "Hey!" Claire exclaimed as she noticed Nigel looking at something on her IPad. "Give that back!" "Not right now. I need it for something" was the only thing Nigel gave back to Claire as he tapped on a website. "By the way, now's a good time to tell me what you wanted to talk to me about yesterday. I doubt anything else could shock us at this point." Claire just gaped for a moment before responding: "Well, I just wanted to tell you that the park has been failing. The Indominus Incident left a large scar on the park's reputation and visitor attendance has been steadily decreasing ever since then. The majority of the visitors all say that they want new things, instead of being concerned about safety." "Wait….what?" Chiyo asked, not seeing why that was. While Chiyo was confused, Bob was aggravated. "We already have the Kayenta Formation animals, the Permian Pride animals, the Indominus Rexs and, what else?...oh yeah, over a hundred other species of extinct creatures! And you mean to tell me that isn't enough for people?!" Bob exclaimed all in one breath, exasperated and furious at the same time. "Apparently not" Claire responded. "The public wants to be able to interact with some animals, such as a sauropod feeding area, petting zoo, an animal stage or a tidepool touch. The public wants experiences with extinct animals that they know are safe. So far, we've started concept art for a Jurassic sauropod feeding area in the treetops and a petting zoo on Main Street." "Oh, build a feeding attraction inside of an enclosure and not tell the head keeper, why don't chya!" Bob exclaimed, annoyed at the knowledge of this information only now reaching him. "But the majority of the public wants something different than those" Claire said, ignoring Bob's rage. "They want animal ambassadors. Small creatures that they can touch and pet without having to wait in a line or that they can just so happen to see while they're walking through the park. And the majority of that wants something small, like a primate or a bird, or perhaps even a small theropod like a…." The website that Nigel had clicked on finally loaded and he handed the IPad back to Claire with a smile. She took it very quick to see what he had pulled up and she almost smiled as well at what creature Nigel had silently recommended they rescue. Turning her IPad around to show everyone what Nigel had planned, she finished her sentence. "Like a Coelophysis." There is something missing from our world. The amazing animals that time has left behind. But what if we could bring them back? What if extinction didn't have to be forever? We're going back in time on a safari with a difference as wildlife adventurer Nigel Marven plunges into prehistory to rescue creatures on the brink of extinction. His plan is to bring them back to the safety of the present and give them a second chance. For the first time ever since the Indominus Incident, Nigel will travel back in time to rescue a well-known theropod that haunts the fossil sites of New Mexico by the hundreds. Welcome to the ultimate wildlife sanctuary. Welcome to Prehistoric Park. Chapter One: The Ghosts of Ghost Ranch Prehistoric Park is busy as it's staff prepares itself for the arrival of the first new previously extinct animals ever since the Indominus Incident, the incident that had scared away many visitors. Now, in order to bring said visitors back to the park, Nigel and Chiyo are going back to the Triassic to rescue a small theropod to (hopefully) act as Prehistoric Park's first animal ambassador. Nigel sat on a bench with a yellow office folder on his lap, looking into the glass at the front of an enclosure resembling a semi-forested rocky outcrop with a stream off to the left corner. Birds inside sang from the treetops and both native and imported dragonflies flew every which way inside. If one looked close enough at the bushes and stones, you could see the skittering forms of small lizards. Several well-hidden heat machines within the enclosure allowed the immediate environment around said machines to replicate the temperature of the inhabitants incredibly hot and humid environment here on Isla Matanceros. This particular enclosure was home to the park's breeding colony of thirteen miniscule Eoraptor. The park had started off with only three of the Triassic theropods, but two human-made secret missions and one experimental drone-operated secret mission had bolstered the animal's population size significantly. "Hey there," Nigel said cheerfully to the approaching cameraman. "I'm just waiting for Chiyo to get here before we get to setting off after a few Coelophysis. Oh, speak of the devil." The cameraman turned around just in time to get tackled to the ground by an over-excited animal. He didn't have any time to react before the creature's mouth opened and revealed it's sharp teeth, which rushed towards him and proceeded to ferociously and viciously attack him….with slobbery licks. "Eh, stop Bowwow! I just took a shower this morning!" the cameraman cried indignantly as Bowwow, Chiyo's pet Kurī, continued to smother him in kisses and love. If the Kurī heard and understood him (which he didn't), then it gave no indication to this, as the dog continued to lick the man like there was no tomorrow. A mere moment after the attack, Chiyo had come walking up the gravel path to the bench. Upon seeing what her pet was doing, she gave a smirk of amusement before putting her hands on her hips. The cameraman hadn't been the first one to fall victim to the love attacks of Bowwow. In fact, said Kurī had attacked Bob and Winston on their way over here while they were on their way to feed the residents. "Hi Nigel," Chiyo greeted her superior, partner and close friend cheerfully before taking a seat next to him to look at the folder in his hands, all the while ignoring the cursing and begs for help from the cameraman. "What's that you've got there?" "I'm glad you asked," Nigel said cheerfully and opening the folder, ignoring the still downed cameraman's calls to stop and wait for him to record what they were saying. "These are the three species of Coelophysis that we currently know of. Allow me to introduce you to Coelophysis Rhodesiensis, Coelophysis Kayentakatae and Coelophysis Bauri." Nigel spread three packets of paper from within before showing each to Chiyo. She took each of them and looked them each over, intrigued as to what the differences between each species and curious as to which on they were rescuing were. It appeared that Rhodesiensis was found from Early Jurassic Africa, which Chiyo found surprising, seeing as how Coelophysis was seen as a Triassic period animal by most people (including herself) which were familiar with extinct and formerly extinct wildlife. Kayentakatae was even more surprising, as it too was from the Jurassic period, but instead lived in North America, alongside the Dilophosaurus they had in the park. Unfortunately, she and Nigel hadn't seen any while they were in the Kayenta Formation looking for the area's crested apex predator. It was possible that they were shy, rare or nocturnal, but she was more certain that she and Nigel had just been unlucky in not seeing one. The last species was the one that almost everyone who was familiar with dinosaurs knew about: the famous Coelophysis, the theropod which was found by the hundreds in Ghost Ranch of New Mexico and depicted in the popular, though (as fossil discoveries had shown before the unveiling of Prehistoric Park) now highly inaccurate Walking with Dinosaurs series. Out of the three Coelophysis, this was the only one who lived in the Triassic. Chiyo continued to read the familiar information, refamiliarizing herself with this dinosaur. Carnivorous diet, pack behavior, lowland wetland and marsh environment, once accused of cannibalism and having the possible predators of phytosaurs and Postosuchus were all information that was shown on the paper. "Which one are we going after Nigel?" "Bauri," the older man replied with a chuckle as he saw the bushes within the enclosure rustle as something moved about. "It's the most well-known, most studied and most understood. I also feel as though we're inclined to show the world that they aren't really cannibalistic as many people still seem to think are, despite science showing that the supposed 'juveniles' have turned out to be small crocodilians known as Hesperosuchus." Chiyo nodded before she passed the Coelophysis species profile back to Nigel, just in time to watch an Eoraptor lunge out of the brush and step on a lizard it had been chasing. The small theropod had a black snout with blue markings on its head.Its neck was blue with black stripes on its neck, giving away it's gender as a male, as the females had no such vibrant colors.. Upon killing the lizard with a swift bite to the head, the early dinosaur gave a chittering victory call into the air. Mere seconds later, a return call was made from some other close by bushes. Chiyo and Nigel watched enthusiastically as this behavior was continued. After a minute, a new Eoraptor, this one being a female, came out from the brush. The female walked up to the male and nudged her head together with his, showing off that they were mates. After this head brushing, the male picked up the lizard carcass and took off into the brush to parts unknown, followed closely from behind by his mate. With the departure of the two dinosaurs, Nigel and Chiyo decided that now was a good time to depart as well. They almost left without interruption before Nigel seemingly remembered something important. Turning around, his eyes landed on the cameraman, who was still being attacked with slobbery licks by Bowwow. The cameraman was currently trying to push the Kurī off, but it was no use: the Kurī breed had been bred to hunt down the once-extinct moas of New Zealand. There was no way that an average guy would overpower or outrun a Kurī easily. Nigel started to walk forwards to help the cameraman, but Chiyo quickly stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder. Turning his head to look at her, he saw an amused smirk appear on her face. Nigel couldn't help but crack a smile at the silly scene too, although he did feel the slightest bit of guilt for enjoying this. "Help!" The cameraman called in vain as the canine continued to bombard him with licks. "Chiyo, stop smirking and get your dog off of me!" "Not gonna do that Jeff," Chiyo said, trying to keep herself from laughing. "This is what you get for cheating at last Friday's card game." Jeff started to say something in retaliation, but he was cut off by a loud avian squawk that caused him and the other two humans to freeze. Looking up exasperatedly, he came eye to beak with a leaning down Phorusrhacos; Phil had escaped once more and somehow made it managed to sneak onto a monorail from Nublar to Matanceros. To anyone who was not a Prehistoric Park staff member, they would probably run away from Phil after hearing he was supposed to be a Miocene murder machine. To Prehistoric Park staff members, however, he was less of a terror and more of a troublemaker. Phil had learned that there was no need to hunt anything here. If he was hungry, he simply returned to his enclosure and started making loud obnoxious squawks that were annoying to literally anyone who listened for more than twenty seconds. Whenever that happened, the entire island could hear him. The Tyrannosaurus grew agitated, the herbivores became antsy, the Deinosuchus stayed underwater to try and block out the sound and the Dromaeosaurus had no way of coping, so they actively tried to escape their enclosure. Seeing as how this caused the other animals to go into a bad mood for the rest of the day, it was agreed that Phil was to be fed whenever he started making this sound, even if he had already been fed that day or eaten when he had gotten out. How he continued to escape was unknown, even to this day (despite him being one of Prehistoric Park's oldest residents), but it provided both a number of laughs, sighs and headaches to staff members. Bowwow looked up as well, his eyes widening as he saw Phil for the first time. The sight of the massive bird triggered his instincts to attack the bird and, with a bark and a lunge, he started nipping at the terror bird's slender ankles. Phil's eyes widened at the unexpected sharp pain that the dog's teeth inflicted. With a loud squawk that hurt the ears of everyone there, the terror bird took off sprinting down the path at thirty miles per hour, eager to get away from the pest of a mammal. Bowwow started sprinting after the Miocene carnivore (that for some reason had been found in the Pleistocene), although he was nowhere nearly as fast as the apex predator. Nigel and Chiyo laughed, despite their ringing ears, but Jeff was holding his ears while curled up in a ball; he was literally right under Phil's head while he had screeched. From being attacked and licked by Bowwow to being right under Phil's head when he had let loose his pained cry, today was not Jeff's lucky day. While Nigel and Chiyo make their way to the time portal of Isla Matanceros, Jeff the cameraman recovers from ruptured eardrums, Bowwow tracks down his terror bird target and Phil continues his frantic feathered fun, Suzanne the vet is performing an ultrasound on an incredibly dangerous animal. Said animal happened to be Jane the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Cronus's mate. Suzanne was on her very tiptoes as she was performing the ultrasound in order to reach the right side of Jane's stomach. The entire time she was doing so, she was sweating bullets. Jane, despite being the newest Tyrannosaurus Rex to Prehistoric Park (although she had been there in the early-middle phase of the park's initial rescue missions, so take that as you will) was arguably more dangerous than Cronus, one of Prehistoric Park's most temperament residents. If Suzanne was correct in assuming Jane was pregnant, based on some visitor's "behavioral sightings (which caused the enclosure to be closed off from children for a while)" several months ago and her current behavior, then she was right to be worried. Female Tyrannosaurus were incredibly aggressive and feisty when they became pregnant and even more so when they actually laid their eggs. "I have my heart in my mouth right now," Suzanne told the cameraman with her as she placed the device over the desired area. "If Jane stirs or kicks in her sleep, then that's both several thousand dollars worth of equipment gone and one bad time in the hospital for me. I believe I don't need to explain what would happen if the tranquilizer wore off early due to all the pheromones in her system right now." Suzanne's cameraman gulped and nodded in agreement before Suzanne finally accomplished her goal. Moments later, a beeping sounded from the computer and Suzanne turned her head to look at the result. Suzanne quickly ran over to the screen to see the results, the cameraman following close behind. If you looked at the screen, you could clearly see four long ovals, each about the size of a football. "Well," Suzanne said after she called a team of keepers to come and get Jane back to her paddock. "It looks like Prehistoric Park will be adding four new baby Tyrannosaurus Rex to it's roster soon. I'll have to inform everyone about this development, but I think everyone's going to be excited. After all, who doesn't love Tyrannosaurus Rex?" "I'm more of a Spinosaurus guy," the cameraman said. Suzanne blinked at this before replying. "Well, most people's favorite prehistoric creature is Tyrannosaurus Rex, so…." she started before she was interrupted by another staff member. "My favorite is Triceratops!" shouted a staff member in the distance. "Darwinius over here," called another. "The online website poll says most visitors favorite creature are Peace Park's Dodo birds." A moment of silence passed throughout the area as Suzanne processed the information. The cameraman tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention, to which she turned around. "I don't think as many people like these days anymore. They actively try and stay out of the visitor's sight unless there is meat and they're all kind of jerks. Also, Prehistoric Park has introduced more charismatic creatures that the guests relate to more, so there's also that factor to consider…." Suzanne opened her mouth to try and disagree, but she quickly closed it when she realized what was being said was true. The were jerks. At the visitor docking area of Isla Nublar, one of Prehistoric Park's newest staff members is spending his break to stop a protesting group from blocking visitors from entering the park. Ever since the park's big reveal, an organization known as the DPG (Dinosaur Protection Group) had been making protests to set the animals free in the wild and give them the same rights as endangered species. Before now, their protests have taken place on the mainland exclusively. However, it appears that that is about to change. This was not how Lowery had wanted to spend his lunch break. He had been sitting at the Starbucks on Main Street and was about to dig into his cheese danish and vanilla steamer when he had noticed a lot less people than usual. He thought nothing of it before an announcement calling for all available staff to go to the visitor docks and get a group of protesters to stop blocking the way into the park came over the intercom. Now Lowery was riding a monorail down to the visitor docks to take care of some protesters while his danish and steamer got cold. Just great. After brief ride and a small minute and a half break to rant about his now cold food and beverage later, Lowery had arrived at the docks to see a group of eighteen or so people with protest signs blocking a crowd of dozens of other visitors from the path leading to the monorail station and, by extension, the rest of the park. "HEY!" Lowery yelled at the protesters, clearly ticked off about the situation. "What's the big idea ya jerks?" "We're protesting for the freedom of the animals in this glorified prison you call a park," a snarky woman who looked like she was in charge said. "And we're doing that by forcing people to boycott your park." "I see," Lowery said, purposefully bring his hand up to his chin to make it seem as if he was thinking about something. "Tell you what, how bout I make you and your friends a deal?" "A deal?" the woman asked suspiciously before narrowing her eyes into a glare. "What kind of deal?" "The deal is this: you and your friends beat it or I call security and get everyone in your protest arrested for disturbing the peace." "Is that a threat?" the woman asked, slightly angry, to which Lowery shook his head. "No, it's a very real staff protocol that I should have already done by now. If you and the rest of the other protesters don't stop and leave, then I'm going to have to follow that protocol. Now, I'll tell you guys one more time: beat it or else I'm going to make each and every you all suffer for ruining my lunch break." "It's against US law for business owners and staff members to threaten protesters." This last protest pushed Lowery over the edge of his short patience and made him growl out his next response angrily at the woman. "Look lady, this isn't the United States. This isn't even the same continent that the US is on, hell, this is even a continent! This island is classified under Costa Rican territory and it doesn't abide by United States laws. Now beat it before I call the guy that trains dromaeosaurs for a living to get over here and personally escort you out of here in the most uncomfortable, humiliating way possible for ruining my chance to eat my cheese danish in peace!" The woman blinked in shock for a moment before she, begrudgingly, started walking away. Upon reaching her companions, she muttered something to them. This resulted the protesters giving Lowery dirty looks before relenting and allowing the visitors to enter the park. Satisfied, Lowery began to walk back to Main Street to enjoy the last few minutes of his break in relative peace. He even completely ignored the brown terror bird known as Phil running down the path with a bucket stuck on it's head that was being chased by several keepers with tranq guns. "I am so good at negotiations," Lowery said to himself proudly. "I should look into becoming our park's public relations manager." Meanwhile at the Isla Nublar Control Center…. Nearly two dozen staff members starred at the screen, exasperated at Lowery's actions. While they personally didn't disapprove of him telling of the woman, they were all thinking the same thing. Vivian was the first to speak up and ask what everyone was thinking. "So, how long to you think it'll take for the social media to start writing hate about the park and blowing this out of proportion?" she asked John Arnold. John just pinched his nose and shook his head, starting to feel a headache from the possible repercussions. "I'd say about a couple hours, the end of the day tops," he responded, rubbing his head to try and ward off the headache. "Sometimes I wonder if the salary pay and laughs are worth all the headaches I get from this job." "We could always fire Lowery," Vivian said jokingly. John didn't catch on and answered seriously. "No, we can't. Despite being a moron, he's a very intelligent moron that frankly knows a bit more about these new modern computers than I do. Besides, if there's another park breakout, I'll need someone to act as both a meat shield and carnivore distraction so that I have a better chance of surviving." At the holding pens of Isla Matanceros, Nigel and Chiyo have made the necessary preparations for their expedition to the Triassic. However, due to new company safety policies, Nigel, Chiyo and Jeff the cameraman will not be the only ones going to the Triassic. Nigel could feel his left eye twitch ever so slightly as he stared at the group of thirty-something odd people shuffling over various jeeps, motorcycles, portable biodegradable tents and even a small helicopter. Recently, InGen and Masrani had created a new company policy (upon the insistence of Vic Hoskins that the small-sized teams that currently went into the past weren't well-equipped enough to deal with serious predator attacks) that stated that, in excursions to the past, at least twenty-five staff members must go to the past together to ensure that predators are discouraged from attacking large numbers of unfamiliar creatures. While it made traveling back in time (hypothetically) safer, it was still going to be a drag to have dozens of people tag along in missions to the past. Taking in a deep sigh, he looked over to Chiyo (who somehow looked even less thrilled than he did) before walking towards the group. Upon closer inspection, he could see that the crowd comprised of mostly humans with possibly half a dozen neanderthals and a pair of Homo erectus. Several days beforehand, Nigel and Chiyo had been informed that the large group before them would split into three smaller groups. The first group would be led by Nigel and Chiyo and would be in charge of capturing the larger fauna of the area. The second group, while equipped to captured larger fauna if the opportunity arises, was focused on collecting floral samples and easily missed smaller fauna like local invertebrates and fish. The third group's objective would be to collect environmental data for analysis back at Prehistoric Park to go towards the construction of more natural enclosures. "I'm going to the silence we got from wandering around a prehistoric forest when we weren't being chased by predators," Nigel said as he observed the group, a look of nostalgia in his eye. "Yep," Chiyo said wistfully, relating to what Nigel was going on about. "Things are certainly going to be different from now on. We can only hope for the best and….why is Bowwow here?" "What?" Nigel looked over to where Chiyo was gazing and observed that Bowwow was, indeed, amongst the masses of people. Nobody paid any attention to the Kurī as it weaved through the hordes as it made it's way towards a jeep, which he promptly crawled into the trunk of and started snoozing. "Let's get him out of here before…" Chiyo started before she was cut off by the voice of Vivian Krill on the holding pen intercom. "Attention all personnel heading to the Triassic period: seeing as how all participating staff members are present, the portals are being activated for departure. Please stand by." Upon the announcement, Nigel and Chiyo quickly got swept up in a crowd of people walking towards the time portals. Other staff members were getting on motorcycles, in jeeps (including the one Bowwow was resting in), in the helicopter and into trailers and getting the engines revved up. Nigel and Chiyo had no time to protest & get Bowwow out of the jeep because the azure portal to the past. The vehicles quickly drove/flew through before those who hadn't had a chance to climb into the machines moved onwards, unknowingly crowding around Nigel and Chiyo so that they had no choice but to move forwards so that they didn't get pushed down by the mass. Forwards into the Triassic period to rescue the hollow form of Ghost Ranch.